1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning paint rollers, and in particular an apparatus that cleans both the interior and exterior of paint rollers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional means for cleaning paint rollers, such as soaking them in a bucket or spraying them with a hose, are very messy, time-consuming, and inefficient. Most of the devices developed to eliminate these problems consist of a cylinder to contain the entire roller and some type of a sprayer to penetrate the roller fibers to remove the paint. These devices are rather large and complicated and often too expensive for the average consumer. Such devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,897,797, 3,731,697, 3,608,120, 3,587,599, 3,075,534, 2,985,178 and 2,831,488.
Another cleaning device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,465 is designed for attachment to a garden hose and consists of a scraper that removes paint from the outer fibers and a separate nozzle that releases a high pressure stream of water to remove embedded paint. Although this device is more compact and better suited for the average consumer, it is still time-consuming because only a very small section can be cleaned with the scraper at a time. Also, it is awkward for the user to hold both the roller and the apparatus attached to the hose while avoiding paint or water spattering.
It is a problem in the art to provide a simple, inexpensive, timesaving, and non-messy device for cleaning the exteriors of paint rollers. Also, with the advent of paint dispensing rollers, a problem exists in providing a device that can easily and efficiently clean the interior of the roller while also cleaning the exterior.